Israeli – Palestinian peace talks: Another exercise in Western fantasy

The frenzied lust that has amplified the drive for peace between Israel, Palestine and the United States is again unveiled in Washington. The resolution for a 65–year -old dispute beckons the voices of the neutral, the livid, unborn martyrs and victims alike.

After more than six months of shuttle diplomacy, Secretary of State John Kerry again entreats the bastion of an elusive peace that might as critics assume “leave humankind more susceptible to a dismal future with the collapse of its negotiation.”

Forsaking the Madrid Peace Conference, the Oslo Accord, the Annapolis Summit, futile talks at Camp David and even President Obama’s aborted schemes, others are seeking to add their labels to the fray, provoking yet again the tenets of another ‘troubled peace.’

Without a doubt, Reinhold Niebuhr’s dogmatic description that “the sad duty of politics is to establish justice and peace to a sinful world” still stands.

Conversely, the political climate for the creation of this peace deserves comment.

With Syria rapidly becoming a haven for terrorist groups, Hezbollah already burrowed at the Lebanese border, a bloody coup in Egypt, the impenitent terrorism of Hamas, rising violence in other Arab countries and Iran’s dogged attempts for nuclear weapons control, the effectiveness of the lore that is now steered for peace between Israel and Palestine has lost its idealism.

Even as Israeli Justice minister Tzipi Livni admits that “peace talks are necessary to preserve a secure and democratic Israel,” it must also be seen that at a time when many right wing members of Netanyahu’s Likud party refuse to accept the idea of a two state solution; the thorny issue of the status of Jerusalem, Palestinians refugees, Jewish settlements and final borders present an arduous picture that further disintegrates the dream to peace.

Statistics confirm that ‘Israel has built more than 100 settlements in the West Bank since occupying the territory in 1967.’ Releasing 104 Palestinian prisoners as part of the precondition to the negotiations to peace because of pressure by the international community and possible legal action by the international criminal court, further spawns the dance of added aggression in the Middle East; for it is anticipated that settlements will continue even while the talks are taking place.

Obviously, this is not a peace that respects human rights.

Will they find common ground? (International Post Courtesy)

The issue of the Palestinian right to return further entangles the peace equation. Numberless critics again affirm that “there is no peace table where Israel would consent to this idea as in so doing she will have negotiated the cradle of her own existence.”

The demand of Palestinians for East Jerusalem as their capital, Israel’s refusal to divide Jerusalem and Palestinians division between Hamas in Gaza and Fatah in the West Bank harkens the cries of Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri that “resuming talks will hurt the Palestinian cause.”

And so another strenuous task in which is molded the bitterness of the displaced and the right for survival laud the “jihad” for peace between Israel and Palestine. Israel’s act of apartheid and genocide and Palestinians culture of anti-Semitism savor their own fears and enrobe them both in the mantle of victimhood and death.

However, the need for Israel security, the need for Palestinian statehood and the reconciliation of US diplomacy now places a long nine months interval on the birth of peace while in the tepid respite of the womb of time the world waits.

But at the altar of perfidy, many weep for the struggle for Israeli –Palestinian peace has now become another ‘exercise in western fantasy.’

About the author

Rebeca Theodore is a national security and political op-ed columnist based in Washington DC. Her work has appeared in various newsprint throughout the Caribbean, Canada and the US. Follow her on twitter @rebethd. Contact the author.

Israel’s “act of apartheid and genocide?” What genocide exactly is the State of Israel guilty of committing? Last time I checked, the word “genocide” meant the widespread killing and destruction of another people. Seems to me that if anyone is guilty of “genocide” it is the Arabs themselves against their own people (i.e. Syria, where 100,000 people have died in that nation’s ongoing civil war). Be careful how you throw around such words.